I was diving in an area called "Shark Ray Alley." We were told it was called that because it was ALL rays by night and ALL sharks by day. We had done a night dive there, and the bottom was literally carpeted with ginormous rays. Day dive the next day, back at Shark Ray Alley. I guess I can say I wasn't surprised that we were surrounded by sharks. The "official" count was somewhere in the neighborhood of a "crapton" (standard, not metric. Equivalent to about 2.5 metric boat loads). All of a sudden, the DM signals "shark." I'm like yeah, cool, shark. There's a nurse shark, there's a nurse shark, there's a nurse shark. He signals "No, no, BIG shark." As he says this, a Reef shark (or something, I'm not sure) swims by. I'm like, cool....big shark. He hunkers down behind a big head of coral in the middle of correcting me a second time. Now I'm like, "What the heck's going on??" I look to my right, and like 6" away from me is a redonculously huge Bull Shark. Easily 50ft long. Well, maybe that was a slight exageration....but it was big enough for me to pull a Warhammer just before nearly passing out.
Another one: My dad and I were following a guide when a turtle FELL in front of us. We followed it for a minute, played with it, then it got bored and swam off. We rejoined with the group, and at the bottom was the DM on his belly on the sand reaching under a coral overhang......where he grabbed a shark's tail. The shark was annoyed, frustrated, but swam off a few seconds later. Watching a DM PURPOSEFULLY grab a shark wasn't something I expected to see, especially because that was the first time I had seen a shark, and I hadn't seen it until he grabbed it. It was like an evil magic trick.
---------- Post added June 16th, 2014 at 11:04 AM ----------
Story 3: I was doing my safety stop in NC after a wreck dive when a gray blur blew by me. I thought it might have been my fiancee. I looked at her, and she was as puzzled as I was. Turns out there were 3 or 4 snowflake dolphins in the area.
In Bonaire, 06, dive buddy was stung by a scorpion while putting his booties on. The scorpion had climbed into his booties as they were drying overnight on his porch. After the sting, the scorpion ran along the deck of the boat until we squished him. I now, always shake my booties out before putting them on!
I grew up in El Salvador. That was VERY common there....to the point where you checked all shoes at all times, no exceptions.